BLACK, WILLIAM (1841-1898), British novelist and jour nalist, was born at Glasgow on Nov. 9, 1841, and died at Brighton on Dec. Io, 1898. He joined the staff of the Morning Star in London, and during the war between Prussia and Austria in 1866 acted as war correspondent, and was taken prisoner. Later Black served on the Daily News, and for some time edited the Examiner.
His first novel, James Merle, published in 1864, was a complete failure; his second, Love or Marriage (i868), attracted but very slight attention. In Silk Attire (1869) and Kilmeny (1870) marked a great advance on his first work, but in 1871 A Daughter of Heth suddenly raised him to the height of popularity, and he followed up this success by a string of favourites. Among the best of his books are The Strange Adventures of a Phaeton (1872) ; A Princess of Thule (1874) ; Madcap Violet (1876) ; Macleod of Dare (1878) ; White Wings (188o) ; Judith Shakespeare (1884) ; White Heather (1885) ; Donald Ross of Heimra (1891) ; and Wild Eelin (1898) . Black's best stories are those which are laid amid the breezy mountains of his native land, or upon the deck of a yacht at sea off its wild coast.